The Interstate Highway System is the backbone of our country’s transportation system. Representing only 1 percent of the total U.S. public road mileage, it carries over 25 percent of all vehicle miles travelled in the country, including more than half of the miles traveled by combination trucks—used mostly for freight carriage. The system not only has mileage in every state in the union, but it has physically integrated the nation. But at over 60-years old, most of the Interstate highways and bridges have long exceeded their design lives and in many places are worn and congested. Furthermore, the nation now has new expectations for the system’s condition, performance, and use. Meeting those expectations and remedying the system’s deficiencies is going to require the same forward-looking outlook and commitment that informed the system’s creation. Our speaker will discuss the findings and recommendations presented in a recent Congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report calls for a 20-year “blueprint for action,” which includes creating a federal “Interstate Highway System Renewal and Modernization Program” modeled after the original Interstate Construction Program. The speaker will also examine other program actions, including changes to law that the study committee recommended to U.S. Congress.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify the expectations today’s users have for the condition, performance, and use of the Interstate Highway System.
2. Review the recommendations made in the recent NASEM report made to Congress regarding the “Interstate Highway System Renewal and Modernization Program.”
3. Examine the the changes to law that the study committee recommended to Congress.
Contributor/Source
Chris Hendrickson
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